Income inequality and poverty risks receive a lot of attention in public debates and current research. However, the situation of families that di?er in size and composition is rarely considered more closely in this context. Relevant research typically relies on equivalence scales to make income...

We estimate a dynamic model of schooling on two cohorts of the NLSY and find that, contrary to conventional wisdom, the effects of real (as opposed to relative) family income on education have practically vanished between the early 1980's and the early 2000's. After conditioning on a cognitive...